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Should military adopt hybrid tanks?

April 21, 2011 No Comment

British Army engineer argues huge carbon and cost savings could be achieved if military adopted green technologies In an era when budgetary cutbacks are leading governments to seriously reassess their military spending, you might imagine that the bean-counters had quickly identified improving fuel efficiency as a key area where savings might be achieved. The fact that so many modern wars seem to include access to oil reserves as a motivating factor should also act to sharpen their attention, too. But, according to a British Army engineer writing in the latest edition of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Journal, the UK’s current government is ignoring the potential benefits – in cutting both costs and carbon emissions – of developing more fuel-efficient military technologies. Staff Sergeant Graham Thornton, who is currently attached to 3 Yorks Regiment as a fitter section artificer and is a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers , argues that the Ministry of Defence should be looking at how the “civil domain” is starting to embrace “hybrid/green technologies” to reduce fuel use. The changing nature of warfare also demands a rethink on fuel use, he says: Recent warfare has seen highly mobile land battles that utilised a large amount of equipment and a considerable amount of fuel to maintain manoeuvre. This placed a high demand on the logistical chains and stretched resources, sometimes to breaking point. A standard 2:21 Battle Group consists of 120 A vehicles and 96 B Vehicles, and can hold up to 12,000 litres of fuel in their tanks. This alone, when burnt, can produce over 31 tonnes of CO2. Furthermore, the amount of fuel that is stored in varying quantities throughout the entire supply chain places a large burden on lift assets and also requires a considerable amount of real estate on the battlefield. Modern warfare is more asymmetric and therefore sees less movement of land equipment. Subsequently a greater use of air equipments (both manned and unmanned) is being seen. The idea of hybrid tanks roaming the battlefields of the future is one suggestion put forward by Thornton. He notes that the UK defence firm QinetiQ is already working on an electric drive transmission called the E-X-Drive . But far more radical is the idea of a “wireless charge system” to power vehicles and equipment and, thereby, reduce the use of heavy batteries, which are, he says, becoming a growing burden on a military increasingly reliant on electricity as a power source, as opposed to diesel. One area where this could prove most practicable is the use of unmanned drones: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAV) are most at risk during takeoff and landing, where a skilled operator is needed to land them safely. As the main power plants are turbo-fan propulsion (as used in the BAE Systems Taranis) and also conventional combustion plants (Hermes 450 uses a Wankel engine) they require refuelling and this is done on the ground. Some UAV/UCAV are fitted with batteries and these require charging or the use of a combustion engine to provide charge which increases the weight and limits the capability of the UAV/UCAV. Some trials have commenced with solar-powered UAV/UCAV and ‘Lighter than Air’ (LTA), but these technologies are bulky, expensive and fragile with a minimal payload and limited operation envelope. The use of batteries with a wireless charge system could be the answer. A Laser Charge system would enable long-term sorties to be flown and the only required downtime would be for the essential maintenance. A laser transmitter converts the power from the primary source (generator, battery or AC source) into a monochromatic beam of light. This is then collected by a specialist photovoltaic (PV) cell on the UAV/ UCAV and then converted to power as is conventional for the PV cell. This technology can be used to provide the electrical power to charge the batteries and if the receiver is replaced with a suitable alternative the laser can be used to provide power to provide heat to air and thus create thrust for an engine. This technology can be used to provide power for static Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) missions (quadricopters and similar), multi-mission flights or unlimited patrolling. The only limit is the charge capability, the UAV/UCAV could return to a base location for charging meaning a lighter storage system is needed or for longer missions larger batteries could be used. The technology could be used in conjunction with a portable AC generator on a vehicle that sets up a mobile charging station. The potential for this technology to provide power, via satellite or mirrors, to outlying posts and patrol bases can be seen. Generators can use a substantial amount of fuel and local power options could be intermittent at best. The power offered by this could be used at certain times to charge large capacity batteries which in turn would provide power for the electronic equipment. There could also be scope for soldiers on the ground to use this technology in a similar manner to the UAV/ UCAV and have lighter/less batteries. Some immediate questions spring to mind. First, would this improved fuel efficiency really lead to a reduction in military spending? Or would it, according to Jevons paradox , just end up increasing the amount of unmanned drones used in warfare? Second, are the fuel savings really so great? The diagram used (above) by Thornton as an example for a drone describes a 4,000W input producing DC power equal to 1,000W. Is a generator on the ground used to power such a laser more efficient than a conventionally powered drone when you factor in this transmission loss ? A Seattle-based company called LaserMotive is very active in this technology, but it doesn’t seem to stress fuel savings as a key advantage of ” power beaming “, rather that it is far less costly than conventional ways of distributing electricity, namely, down copper wires. (I have asked LaserMotive to provide its thoughts on this point. When it responds, I will post below.) Thornton appears downbeat that this technology will get support from the current government due to the defence industry being “reluctant in the current financial climate to risk disfavour associated with fighting for the funding to introduce greener technologies”. I suspect he is probably right. But, in future years, it is highly likely that military technologies will be developed that help to reduce the carbon “bootprint” of armies, as well as, ultimately, our own civilian carbon footprint. This might not sit well with those environmentalists who are instinctively repulsed by the ” military industrial complex “, but history teaches us that many technological advances have been born under the shadow of war. Power-beaming might end up being one of them. Energy efficiency Leo Hickman guardian.co.uk

Should military adopt hybrid tanks?

April 21, 2011 No Comment

NY Times Shields Disgraceful Goldstone Report Claiming Israel Targeted Civilians

April 21, 2011 No Comment

New York Times Jerusalem Bureau Chief Ethan Bronner and reporter Jennifer Medina summarized on Wednesday the outcry after the dramatic reversal earlier this month by Judge Richard Goldstone. The judge authored the notorious “Goldstone report” for the United Nations Human Rights Council, blaming the state of Israel, but not the terrorist group Hamas, for making targets of civilians during the three-week Gaza war in 2008. In an April 3 op-ed for the Washington Post (one rejected by the New York Times), Goldstone admitted that the data vindicated Israel’s concerns about his report: “If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.” Since then, as CAMERA reports , the Times has described the resulting political machinations in a way to make Israel look cynical rather than truth-seeking, while softening the blow to Goldstone’s credibility, by refusing to give up on Goldstone’s initial accusations that Israel deliberately targeted Palestinian civilians: “ Investigator On Gaza Was Guided By His Past – Goldstone Once Led South Africa Inquiry. ” Like the headline, the report itself assumed Goldstone was acting in good faith all along: Two decades ago, Richard Goldstone, a Jewish South African judge, played a vital role in reconciling his country’s white minority government and rising black majority movement by leading a fact-finding mission into black violence that offered a Solomonic conclusion. The violence, he found, was endemic, but a covert government campaign was sponsoring black killings to undermine the opposition. Heads rolled, hands were shaken and Mr. Goldstone was hailed as the most trusted man in the country, going on to a distinguished international career. In 2009, he tried to do the same thing in the other country close to his heart: Israel . Mr. Goldstone, a Zionist who believes that political reconciliation will result when both sides face the unbiased rigors of international law, agreed to lead a United Nations inquiry into the war between Israel and Hamas, telling friends that the mission could make a real contribution to Middle East peace. The Times soft-pedaled Goldstone’s skewed anti-Israel findings. The resulting report that bears his name accused each side of wrongdoing — deliberately making civilians targets. But the report not only failed to bring peace to the region and universal honor to its author. It also hardened positions and brought a storm of attacks on Mr. Goldstone, especially from within his community. In trying to understand why he published an essay on April 1 in The Washington Post retracting his harshest accusation against Israel and toughening his stand toward Hamas and the United Nations — an essay that has been rejected by the fellow members of his investigation panel — the South African precedent is important. For Mr. Goldstone, it was the model of how the Gaza report would work. Instead, it helped drive Israeli politics farther to the right, gave fuel to Israel’s enemies and brought no notable censure on Hamas. The Times suggested that hostility from fellow Jews was a primary reason for Goldstone’s change of heart. In describing his new position, Mr. Goldstone wrote, “If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone report would have been a different document.” He has declined requests to elaborate. Interviews with two dozen people who know him suggest a combination of reasons: the hostility from his community , disappointment about Hamas’s continuing attacks on civilians, and new understanding of Israel’s conduct in a few of the most deadly incidents of the war. Bronner and Medina step lightly onto the fact of the long-time, viciously anti-Israel stand of the United Nations. When Mr. Goldstone was asked to investigate the three-week Gaza war, which started in late 2008, he was told by many friends of Israel that he was stepping into a trap. There had never been a United Nations Human Rights Council investigation into possible war crimes in Chechnya or Sri Lanka, but there had been multiple ones into Israel’s actions. Not until paragraph 22 did the Times get to the heart of the false and incendiary allegations made in the Goldstone report: In truth, even many who hailed the Goldstone report in the human rights world, in Israel and the United States, were uncomfortable with its assertion that Israel intended to kill civilians.

Arthur – review

April 21, 2011 No Comment

Russell Brand steps into Dudley Moore’s shoes in this remake of the 1981 comedy, but it’s Peter Cook’s embarrassing Hollywood career that Peter Bradshaw is reminded of This frankly depressing film is an atonal symphony of wrong notes. British comedy star Russell Brand takes the lead in a joyless, unobservant remake of the 1981 hit, which had Dudley Moore as the lovable millionaire drunk in Manhattan, endangering his fortune and lifestyle by falling in love with a penniless woman of whom his family disapproves. It won John Gielgud a best supporting actor Oscar as Arthur’s droll manservant and another for its sugary theme song (“When you get caught between the moon and New York City …”). You only have to watch this one for a few minutes before you realise that it isn’t Moore that Brand resembles here, but Peter Cook – specifically, Cook in his unhappy 1980s era, cast as a posh British butler in the shortlived American sitcom The Two of Us. The analogy doesn’t hold entirely: Cook conspicuously failed to break America, and Brand is a smash-hit success there. But there is the same Hollywood way of getting an imported Brit comedian utterly wrong; the same way of failing to understand the subtly ironic style and playful mojo of a great performer, and instead forcing him into a naff, tourist template of Britishness. It is almost eerie to see how the funny has been removed from Brand’s performing style, leaving only the loopy, cheery, hyper-articulation. In one scene, Arthur irrepressibly buys Abraham Lincoln’s top hat at auction and clowns around in the streets wearing it. It’s an American president’s hat, but it’s what this film’s producers imagine a top-hole Brit might wear anyway. Actually, Brand looks as if he’s conducting some sort of voodoo funeral. What’s more baffling is that the screenplay is by Peter Baynham, a whip-smart writer who worked in British television with Steve Coogan, Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris in the 1990s, before establishing himself in Hollywood and working on Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat and Brüno films. The system appears here to have squeezed the life out of him, and suit-wearing execs must have been leaning on this script. In this new version, Arthur has a long-suffering driver called Bitterman; the name may be a joke about being resentful, but there’s nothing in the script for Luis Guzmán to work with. Instead of having a male butler, however, Arthur now has an exasperated nanny who has looked after him since he was a child. Why? Because he’s basically adorable. She is actually a “supernanny” like Jo Frost in the TV show, which has gone over well in the States. It is an unintentionally creepy, embarrassing, infantilising idea, and the indignity of this chillingly unfunny role is bravely borne by Helen Mirren. Arthur’s domineering mother, Vivienne, is played by Geraldine James, and she threatens to disinherit our hero, unless he gets married to a suitable woman: a joke-free, ball-breaking bitch played by Jennifer Garner. Her industrialist dad is Nick Nolte, who telexes in a performance of palpable detachment and contempt. Things go wrong when Arthur falls in love with free-spirit Naomi, played by mumblecore star Greta Gerwig. Just as with Brand, though in a different way, the movie’s casting directors have utterly failed to understand the talents that brought this performer to their notice in the first place. Gerwig’s gentle, complex style is here reduced to a kiddie-ish single note – quirky, asexual and unthreatening. Like Arthur, she is stuck with an icky and infantilising tic, living with her dad. For some reason, she conducts her own very unlikely, uninteresting and unofficial wacky tours of Grand Central Station, and yearns to be a children’s book illustrator. The absolute low point comes with a racist crack about Barack Obama. British matriarch Vivienne sneers at the “coffee-coloured” president, and Arthur feebly objects that “you can’t say that”. Oh yes you can – if you’re a cardboard Brit! Because it’s the sort of thing those meanie uptight Brits do, you see, like wearing monocles and drinking tea. There’s no way on earth an American character would be made to say it. Or if this did happen, it would be a very different sort of film – a dark thriller or drama and the person saying it would probably die in a hail of bullets. But this sort of racism is OK for a comedy Brit. Now, of course, there is racism in Britain, but there is here no real intention to satirise it and, in any case, specific racist resentment of Obama is an American thing, not a British thing. All of us Brits who have grown up avidly and gratefully consuming American movies and TV have become used to the way that country’s affectionate enthusiasm for Britain – Jon Stewart memorably called us “America’s deadbeat older brother” – sometimes tips over into tiring condescension. But for this condescension to include a racial joke about Obama left a very nasty taste in my mouth. All that’s left for Brand fans is to put on the DVDs of his live shows to remember what a great comic he is. (Somewhere, I have a copy of his tremendous, off-the-wall BBC4 documentary about Jack Kerouac.) For fans and non-fans alike, however, this new Arthur is one to miss. Rating: 1/5 Comedy Russell Brand Helen Mirren Peter Bradshaw guardian.co.uk

Kyrgyz parliament slaughters sheep

April 21, 2011 No Comment

Turbulent central Asian state makes a traditional blood offering to drive evil spirits out of the parliament building It has suffered two popular revolts, a bloody fistfight and a police raid that turned up a Kalashnikov. The parliament chamber of Kyrgyzstan is clearly a place of discord, but MPs in the central Asian state have chosen an unusual way of soothing tensions, it has emerged. Deputies in the legislature sacrificed seven sheep this morning in order to drive evil spirits out of the building, which was damaged in unrest last spring and has been the scene of scuffles between rival factions. Shairbek Mamatoktorov, a spokesman for the assembly, the Jogorku Kenesh, told reporters the ceremony was attended by almost all members, who also gave prayers for those who died in the uprising that toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiyev a year ago this month. “We want peace and agreement to reign in both the parliament and the country,” one MP told news agencies. Kyrgyzstan has had a turbulent recent history. The ousting of Bakiyev was followed by ethnic clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in the south of the central Asian country two months later, which left hundreds of people dead. Roza Otunbayeva, a former foreign minister, was sworn in as interim leader in July, but the country will choose a new president in elections in October. A new parliament with increased powers was voted in last autumn and has occasionally proved rowdy. Earlier this month, two MPs came to blows in the chamber. Police confiscated 11 guns — including an AK-47 assault rifle — in the building during a security sweep after the brawl. The pugilists later publicly exchanged traditional robes and hats as a sign of reconciliation. The current parliament building was the seat of government until last year, when it was ransacked after the fall of Bakiyev. It was also damaged in 2005, when President Askar Akayev was overthrown in the Tulip Revolution. Animal sacrifices are common in the Muslim central Asian states. Kyrgyzstan, a rural, mountainous country, has an estimated 4.25 million sheep; only slightly fewer than the human population. Mamatoktorov said the meat from today’s ceremony would be sent to retirement homes and orphanages. Not all politicians supported the throat-cutting ceremony. Ondorush Toktonasyrov, a leader of the protests against Bakiyev, told Reuters it was “a sign of backward mentality”. “Deputies have no idea about parliamentary culture,” he said. “This is an official building where the president works, and the parliament slaughters rams!” Kyrgyzstan Tom Parfitt guardian.co.uk

Noted Republican Hypocrite Rep. Paul Ryan Booed At Town Hall Meeting. Don’t They Know He’s A Genius?

April 21, 2011 No Comment

My goodness! The conservatives who elected Rep. Paul Ryan (the man whose Social Security survivor benefits helped pay for college , and who defended the deficit during the Bush years, saying it’s “not big enough” ) don’t sound

‘On Faith’ Contributor Calls Paul Ryan Budget Supporters to Repentance This Holy Week

April 21, 2011 No Comment

Are you a Christian who also is supportive of Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan? Then you'd best repent of your sin and be renew your mind with the social gospel. That's the pronouncement of liberal theologian Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite in an April 18 post at the Washington Post/Newsweek “On Faith” website. Brooks Thistlethwaite — who previously hit Tea Party conservatives as tribalistic — apparently believes that politically conservative Christians are trying to serve two masters, Jesus and Ayn Rand (emphasis mine): Ever since Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) put out his draconian budget proposal that slashes essential programs for the poor and gives big tax breaks to the rich, Ryan’s attachment to the works of Ayn Rand has been in the spotlight. Jonathan Chait, in the pages of Newsweek, calls out Ryan for launching a “War on the Weak” and explains “How the GOP came to view the poor as parasites –and the rich as our rightful rulers.” The success of this idea that the rich have the right to rule and the poor don’t have any right to their help, is due to the popularity of the philosophy of Ayn Rand on the far right. According to Chait, Ryan is “a Rand nut…Ryan once appeared at a gathering to honor her philosophy, where he announced, ‘The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand.’ He continues to view Rand as a lodestar, requiring his staffers to digest her creepy tracts.”

Ahmadinejad aide groomed to lead

April 21, 2011 No Comment

Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei is controversial figure at odds with religious leaders for nationalist rather than theological narrative A close ally of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who favours cultural openness and opposes greater clerical involvement in politics, is being groomed as a possible successor to the Iranian president when he steps down in two years time. Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, Ahmadinejad’s chief-of-staff, is positioning himself as a candidate who will champion a nationalist rather than a theological narrative of Iran. Mashaei, whose daughter married Ahmadinejad’s son, has become the most controversial political figure in Iran, provoking harsh criticism from the conservative establishment, including the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Hardliners close to Khamenei have accused Mashaei of compromising the Islamic Revolution and the principles of Islam by focusing on Persian history. Mashaei infuriated conservatives in 2008 when he said that Iranians are “friends of all people in the world – even Israelis”. He was also criticised for applauding at a ceremony in Turkey in which women performed a traditional dance. Women are not allowed to dance in Iran. Mashaei used to head Iran’s cultural heritage organisation. He was appointed first vice-president in 2009 when Ahmadinejad resumed office following disputed elections that generated mass protests. But he was forced to step down when Khamenei intervened and said in a letter to the president that “the regime’s expediency” required Mashaei to leave his post. Ahmadinejad appointed Mashaei as chief-of-staff instead, a move seen by many as a blow to Khamenei and the first sign of split emerging between the president and the supreme leader. A confidential US diplomatic cable revealed by Wikileaks said the incident underlined Mashaei’s significance in Ahmadinejad’s team . “Ahmadinejad’s stubborn defence of Mashaei bespeaks his importance as a key adviser for the increasingly isolated president; he also has emerged as a spokesman for the Ahmadinejad administration. Ahmadinejad has even told press that he would gladly serve as vice-president in a Mashaei administration, prompting many to speculate that Ahmadinejad seeks to have Mashaei replace him in 2013,” the cable reads. Some analysts believe that a regime which has crushed the green opposition movement and is short of internal opposition, is merely creating one in order to create a show of legitimacy come the next election. Hooshang Amirahmadi, the president of the American Iranian Council who knows Mashaei, told the Guardian: “The reformist movement in Iran did not succeed for various reasons. I think Mashaei has become another alternative and the regime is using this opportunity to heat up the next election in Iran. Mashaei is saying that Iranians are at first Iranians and Islam comes afterward. “He is reviving a source of national pride of Iranians, something that has been neglected not only since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 but in the past two centuries.” Amirahmadi said: “After the revolution, an extensive obsession with Islam made the authorities neglect Iran’s history and Mashaei is now seeking to promote this sort of nationalistic narrative. I think Ahmadinejad himself is also in favour of Iran’s history and has sought to revive Iran’s ancient glory and power.” Iranians are proud of their history and still largely celebrate many ancient traditions that goes back as far as the country’s Zoroastrian era, such as the Persian new year, Nowruz. Mashaei is also believed to have played a crucial role in securing the loan from the British Museum of the Cyrus Cylinder . The artefact, considered the first human rights charter, was seen by a million visitors in Tehran during its six-month exhibition, although hardliners and clerics largely boycotted the event. The relic was returned to the UK last week. “Obviously Mashaei’s nationalistic views are a threat to clerics. They are afraid that their power might wane if people begin to respect their pre-Islamic history,” Amirahmadi said. Mashaei, whose name has been touted among political activists as a possible 2013 candidate, has not ruled out the possibility of running for president, recently telling reporters he would make a definitive decision six months from the election. Kayhan, a newspaper aligned with Khamenei, predicted that Iran’s powerful Guardian Council would block Mashaei’s candidacy if he decides to run. The Guardian Council vets all candidates before any elections in Iran. Mashaei, who is launching a newspaper next month, is also believed to have tried to secure the release of three Americans detained in Iran, a move that resulted in the release of one of the prisoners, Sarah Shourd . Her friends, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, remain in Tehran after their release was believed to have been blocked by hardliners. The US embassy cables Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Middle East United States US foreign policy US national security WikiLeaks Saeed Kamali Dehghan guardian.co.uk

Ahmadinejad aide groomed to lead

April 21, 2011 No Comment

Ahmadinejad aide groomed to lead

April 21, 2011 No Comment

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